16 April 2010

If voting changes so little, what are the means of radical change?

Red Pepper Debate: If voting changes so little, what are the means of radical change?

Time:5:00PM Saturday, April 24th
Location: Housman's Bookstore, 5 Caledonian Rd, King's Cross, London

A discussion with Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper, author of ‘Reclaim the State’,) Stuart White (Oxford University, editor of 'Building a Citizen Society') and Marianne Maeckelbergh (Leiden University, author of 'The Will of the Many').

Two weeks ahead of the forthcoming general election, this debate sets out to challenge... the merit of engaging in the current voting process, and discuss possible alternative means to initiate change in the political arena of the UK.

Red Pepper was launched in May 1995 and aims to provide a bold and attractive voice for the independent-minded left. It also aimed to provide a means by which people from different traditions on the left could think aloud as they tried to recover from the defeats of the 1980s, drawing inspiration from green, feminist and ’developing’ world liberation movements to recreate a socialist vision.

Come one. come all.

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/

1 December 2009

Creating Conflictive Democracy through Global Movement Networks

All Welcome!

Consensus is Oppression: Creating Conflictive Democracy through Global Movement Networks

Friday, December 4th 2009, 1.30 to 3.30 pm, Room 4.08, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London.

Democratic rhetoric has never been so widespread, yet democracy is in deep crisis. Dominant app...roaches reliant on representative democratic practices view human diversity as a problem to be resolved, resulting in homogenisation and exclusion. Diversity, however, can be healthy for democracy when given room for expression. Marianne Maeckelbergh argues that conflict must be embraced in organisational processes.

Marianne Maeckelbergh's research uses a methodology of politically engaged anthropology that calls into question the demarcation of stark boundaries between theory and practice. Her work provides some answers to the double role researchers have in interpreting the cultural practices of organisation whilst simultaneously being actively involved in creating and transforming these practices. Moreover her research confronts important questions about university-based research, its subjects, audiences and purposes. These are key concerns for doctoral researchers today. In this PhD master class, Marianne Maeckelbergh will present her PhD research on conflict in organisation and discuss the methodological approach that informed her study. She will also address questions regarding the process of publishing PhD research.

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745329253&

The PhD master class is open to all research students and is co-organised by Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies and Queen Mary School of Business and Management, University of London.

_Contacts:_

Emma Dowling, e.dowling [at] qmul dot ac dot uk. Tel: 020 7882 8985

John Hutnyk, john.hutnyk [at] gold dot ac dot uk. Tel: 020 7919 7061
Check out the Pluto Press Blog: 10 years Seattle. You can read the first few pages of the book there and some other reflections on Seattle. http://plutopress.wordpress.com/

5 October 2009

The Will of the Many

Book Description:
Never before has the idea of democracy enjoyed the global dominance it holds today, but neoliberalism has left the practice of democracy in deep crisis. This book argues that the most promising model for global democracy does not come from traditional political parties or international institutions, but from the global networks of resistance to neoliberal economics, known collectively as the Alter-globalisation movement.

Through extensive examples of decision-making practices within these movements, Maeckelbergh describes an alternative form of global democracy in the making. Perfect for activists and students of political anthropology, this powerful and enlightening book offers radical changes.

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745329253&

Reviews:

‘This book deserves to be looked back on fifty years from now as having opened a new chapter in the history of democratic thought.’
-- David Graeber, Reader in Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, University of London.

‘Maeckelbergh's ethnographic research has enabled her to write an exciting book-length exploration of the prefigurative democratic political practices of alterglobalization activists. This study is essential reading for all who continue to insist that other worlds are possible.’
--John Gledhill, Max Gluckman Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester.

‘Intellectually exhilarating and morally inspiring. … This is a major contribution to both ethnography and theory. … A real tour-de-force.’
-- Jane K Cowan, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Sussex